“Go down Moses, manner down in Egypt’s land,” the previous non secular says. “Inform previous Pharaoh to let my folks go.” I’m keen on this tune’s rendition by Jess Lee Brooks in Sullivan’s Travels (1941). Brooks portrays a pastor that reminds his congregation to not make unwelcome by phrase, motion, or look these becoming a member of the service that night time. As they sing “Go down Moses,” prisoners from an area chain gang shuffle in and take their seats.
You shall not make wrongful use of the identify of the Lord your God, for the Lord won’t acquit anybody who misuses his identify. Wait. What?
As a convicted felon, this scene resonates with me. It speaks to my hope that someplace a congregation will see me not as an individual with a previous, however as a fellow traveler on a highway none of us escapes unscathed.
Moses could have agreed. He tells God that going to Egypt appears like a foul concept. He waffles. He wheedles. He calls for to know who’s sending him. Then God shocks Moses and us with a disclosure that ceaselessly modifications how we work together with the divine. “God’s final self-revelation to Moses,” observes revered Hebrew scholar James Kugel: “‘I’m by nature compassionate and merciful (regardless of all proof on the contrary). I hear the cry of the sufferer; I can’t assist it.’” This convinces Moses, who heads out, Aaron in tow, to talk within the identify of God.
Nevertheless it’s not a clean verify.
Later God lays down the legislation to Moses. His Ten Commandments are completely clear, however the third has regularly been misunderstood or maybe misrepresented:
You shall not make wrongful use of the identify of the Lord your God, for the Lord won’t acquit anybody who misuses his identify.
Wait. What? God could forgive homicide, adultery, theft, on and on, however not saying “Son of a—!” once I stub my toe? Or joking with a buddy over our BBQ that he can crap in his hat and put on it backwards for all I care? (Who then doffs his hat and presents me a whiff?)
Not precisely.
Rabbi Joseph Telushkin says the third commandment isn’t about foul language in any respect. It has been watered down over the centuries. The Hebrew phrase, “You shall not make wrongful use of the identify of the Lord your God (Lo tissa et shem Ha-Shem Eloheikha la-shav),” holds a shock for us. “Lo tissa, actually means ‘You shall not carry [God’s name in vain]’,” Telushkin explains. “In different phrases, don’t use God as your justification in egocentric causes.” He means that this helps us perceive why, of all the opposite sins listed within the commandments, solely the third is unpardonable. To behave poorly, or with evil intent, is to discredit oneself; to take action within the divine identify is to discredit God.
Harvard thinker and theologian Paul Tillich can be struck by God’s assiduous safety of his identify towards abuse. Commenting on the third commandment, Tillich suggests that individuals have all the time tried to make use of the divine identify for egocentric causes. “That is the hazard of faith, and even anti-religion,” he writes. “For in each the identify of God is used in addition to misused.”
I recoil. Cleansing up my language is among the simpler injunctions (on good days). However this strategy to the third commandment deserves a more in-depth look. Let’s see what others say on the topic.
“To take the identify of the Lord in useless means to vociferously proclaim your religion as a way to conceal your faithlessness.”
Or our greed.
Influential Previous Testomony authority Walter Brueggemann writes that the third commandment “refers to gentle and perverse oaths primarily based on the identify and assure of Yahweh. This implies the exploitation quite than service of Yahweh.” One other Hebrew Bible scholar, Chris Wright, insists that “by blatantly utilizing God’s identify within the pursuits of their very own selfishness, energy, or delight—they’re in precept breaking the third commandment.” John Dickson, Anglican cleric and historian of early Christianity and Judaism, agrees: “The third commandment utterly forbids the usage of God’s identify for petty human ends.” One instance is the seemingly non secular entrance that some church buildings put as much as cowl abysmal habits.
Others weigh in with comparable ideas. Robertson McQuilkin, president emeritus of Columbia Worldwide College in South Carolina, succinctly speaks to the coronary heart of the third commandment: “It’s fallacious to invoke the identify of God to validate the truthfulness of 1’s assertion when it’s truly unfaithful.” Dr. M. Scott Peck explains that the time period “blasphemy” refers on to a violation of the third commandment: “[It] refers to candy non secular language about God, which is used to cover or disguise one’s godlessness or depraved habits. To take the identify of the Lord in useless means to vociferously proclaim your religion as a way to conceal your faithlessness.”
Or our greed.
Journey with me to the Nineties. I’m making an attempt somewhat experiment. I search a church which may welcome my daughter and me with out utilizing the identify of God to demand cash for cash’s sake. It’s not a trick; I’m hopeful. Let me clarify.
If a church requires money to assist with an clearly failing roof, my pockets is open. A youth journey; new hymnals (the present ones are falling aside); a ramp within the cultural space for wheelchairs? All affordable requests. Even the smallest church has sure prices. If I don’t have the cash, I’m glad to pitch in with development or in different methods. I endure ubiquitous assortment plates in a nod to custom.
However inevitably somebody asks me for cash with out a clear goal. It often begins with a name (like a recalcitrant youngster) to the pastor’s workplace or an surprising go to to my house. As soon as the phrase tithe rears its head, I do know what’s coming. I hear politely (I hope) till the pastor winds down.
“I agree we should always do our half,” I say. I’ve no drawback with sacrificial tithe. Between us, although it’s hardly a secret, I point out my volunteer work at our native grownup studying heart, museum, and meals financial institution.
At this level the pastor will get a lemony-faced look.
Then his well-trod sermon begins. An indication of religion, he intones. Construct the dominion. And so forth. My thoughts wanders as this speech hits the same old highlights.
I don’t level out that giving cash as an indication of religion appears to be a sign of its lack. We regularly pay out of worry that we’re not sufficiently obedient, a way of obligation, or guilt over sins and missed again funds. Self-importance could come into play for some. Our money fee appears to be transactional, both to purchase congregational approbation or God’s good grace. This appears to overlook the purpose.
I’ve an concept that giving for giving’s sake is one in all humanity’s noblest aspirations.
I image a person on the famed pearly gates. “I haven’t completed a lot with my life,” he tells Peter. A guide is opened. What about that stranger you helped along with his tire? Or filling in for a co-worker when his mom died? Peter scrolls the pages. Right here’s a time you warned a blind man when the road gentle hadn’t modified. “Oh, these don’t depend, I wasn’t doing it for God,” our man says. “I simply wished to assist.” Peter replies, “Precisely.”
However there’s no want to say my ideas to the pastor, since his goal on this “phrase of prayer,” as it’s known as, is just to extract cash. Not for native volunteer organizations, not for worthy causes, not for another church, however for his specific church. Whilst I kind, I shut my eyes and attempt to recall if a single pastor did not invoke God’s identify to assist in his establishment’s monetary trigger. None involves thoughts.
I attempted over a dozen church buildings that yr. My sole disqualifying criterion was the act of personally entreating cash for its personal sake. Not one church lasted longer than three weeks.
And it’s not simply cash.
Some use God’s identify in makes an attempt to manage others. I cringe on the phrases phrase of data or God informed me. In my expertise, these and comparable expressions can regularly be methods of claiming have a look at me or do what I need. Not all the time, however usually sufficient. Conversely, when assist arrives at an surprising second, the divine identify is seldom invoked, save in my prayers. True service has little must announce itself.
Politicians name on the identify of deity with such frequency that we’ve grown inured to its abuse. They could use it to govern, look good, pander to a sure demographic, or persuade constituents that their agenda is divinely-approved. As a historical past author, I do know of leaders who spoke the identify of God with reverence and devotion, however they have been uncommon certainly.
Social media pages and different net areas inform us God needs you to know at this time. The rationalization for talking in God’s identify, they clarify, is often a passage of scripture. For instance: “God needs you to know at this time that he loves you.” Properly, that appears protected sufficient. However is it? We would as an alternative attempt talking for ourselves: “I used to be studying about God’s love at this time and I consider he loves you.” That’s extra correct, nevertheless it lacks the zippy false credibility of a meme that pretends to be God. Anticipate no shares.
My foul language isn’t practically as horrifying as the concept that God holds me accountable for appearing in his identify, or presenting my viewpoint as if it have been his.
This side of the third commandment is oddly absent from many Christian books. In my darkish moments, I feel the shortage is as a result of it could be tough for the power-hungry or grasping to swallow. Even much less charitably, I muse that monetary self-interest prevents some from revealing to their congregants the true intent of such a disturbing injunction.
One more reason could also be wholesome worry and real awe. My foul language isn’t practically as horrifying as the concept that God holds me accountable for appearing in his identify, or presenting my viewpoint as if it have been his. The second we presume to abuse the divine identify, we convey our ignorance, impose our opinion, and venture our motivations onto the unknowable actions of God. Job’s buddies discovered this at nice value. The third commandment is really terrifying.
What bothered me within the Nineties, and should irritate the forty million Individuals which have left church buildings previously twenty-five years, is the usage of God’s identify to realize egocentric objectives. This drawback isn’t common, but when we’re trustworthy, most of us could recall moments in our congregations when God’s identify was invoked to additional monetary, political, or different goals that had little to do with worship.
Nonetheless, we’re not all as much as no good. There’s one other aspect of the third commandment.
“This commandment is really among the many most radical,” observes Ana Levy-Lyons, writer of No Different Gods. “It calls us to earn our personal rewards and admit our personal failings with out dragging God into it.” Jeanette Mathews, Senior Lecturer in Previous Testomony with Charles Sturt College, calls breaking the third commandment lifting the Lord’s identify: “When God’s identify is utilized by people, communities, or nations in help of any kind of injustice, it’s getting used wrongfully.” However she sees a constructive aspect to the prohibition that shouldn’t be ignored: “Equally, God’s identify is honored by those that reside and work for fact, peace, and justice.”
I return to Sullivan’s Travels because the pastor tells his congregation that they are going to as soon as once more share their leisure “with some neighbors much less lucky than ourselves.” They clear the primary three pews so their guests could have handy seats. He then asks them not “to attract away from them or act high-toned.” He leads the congregation in a stirring model of “Go Down Moses” as a welcome for his or her company. Fiction has captured a super as previous because the Ten Commandments.
Maimonides, one in all historical past’s most interesting Jewish philosophers, maintains that God’s first commandment, “I’m Adonai your God, who introduced you out of the land of Egypt, out of the abode of slavery. You’re to haven’t any different gods earlier than me,” invitations prepared obedience to his subsequent statements: you shall (inevitably) haven’t any different gods; you shall (inevitably) not homicide; and so on. Martin Buber builds on Maimonides when he insists that in figuring out God as a dwelling, precise being, we can’t keep away from non secular change. We turn into what we’re enjoined to turn into as a result of we can’t do in any other case: what we would do if we may is inevitably what we will do.
It wasn’t fairly so inevitable to Moses. He by no means actually stopped quibbling with God.
Within the movie Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014), Moses is confronted by God’s messenger, Malak, who seems as a younger boy concerning the age of Gershom, the son of Moses. This appears to be an act of compassion. It actually can be for me. My daughter is useless. If God chooses to commune in a manner my coronary heart can stand, he want solely ship Jess. He’ll have my full consideration.
Later within the movie, as Moses is inscribing the Ten Commandments, Malak asks his ideas about them. After all, God is aware of the reply, however his messenger is exhibiting love and pleasure in Moses.
MOSES
I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t agree.
MALAK
That’s true. I’ve seen that about you. You don’t all the time agree with me.
MOSES
Nor you me, I’ve seen.
I discover this fictional scene heartening. My motives usually are not all the time clear to me, and God’s intentions stay a thriller. I needn’t fear. As Maimonides wrote centuries in the past, within the promise of change, I can’t abuse the identify of God as a result of I slowly, inevitably develop incapable of the act. I hope so, however I’m nonetheless ready.
Tillich concludes his remarks on the third commandment with a query: “May it’s that godlessness isn’t brought on solely by human resistance, but in addition by God’s paradoxical motion—utilizing males and forces by which they’re pushed to guage the assemblies that collect in His identify and take His identify in useless?” He has a degree. A special strategy could also be so as.
Slightly than moan Why do they go away? we’d ask Why would they keep?
A great beginning place could also be to cease placing phrases in God’s mouth and take part tune, silence, prayer, and communion. We’re on this collectively, in any case. “Mercy heals in each manner,” writes Thomas Merton. “It heals our bodies, spirits, society, and historical past. It’s the solely pressure that may really heal and save.” Maybe our fellow vacationers are exhibiting us a greater manner, inviting us to share in a compassion that our abuse of the third commandment has lacked. “Oppressed so onerous, they might not stand,” the previous non secular groans. “So the Lord mentioned, ‘Go down Moses, inform all Pharaohs to let my folks go’.”
That’s value exhibiting up for.
